1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiple-robot control method, wherein a plurality of robots mounted close to each other are controlled so that there is no interference between adjacent robots when the robots are simultaneously operated according to a command.
2. Description of Related Art
If a plurality of robots mounted close to each other execute a task in cooperation with each other, operation efficiency can be improved. However, care must be taken so that there is no interference between these closely mounted robots. For this reason, a conventional control method exists for predicting a region where there is the possibility of interference between robots, and for letting one robot wait so as not to enter the region for the duration when the other robot exists in the region and is operating therein. The conventional control method prevents two robots from being simultaneouly operated in the same region by taking advantage of communication between robots.
However, it is not easy to predict the region where the robots interfere with each other. If the region is broadly set in consideration of a sufficient margin such that these robots have no interference with each other, the time during which one robot exists in the region set becomes long. As a result, a waiting period for the other robot also becomes long; and for this reason, the operating efficiency is lowered. On the other hand, if a minimum region where the robots have no interference with each other is predicted and is preset to enhance the operating efficiency, it is necessary to perform a complicated computation for the prediction. Therefore, accurate prediction is difficult to make. Further, it is considerably difficult to preset the timing of communication between the robots; and for this reason, there is the disadvantage that there is an increase in the number of processes required to effectively operate the plurality of robots so as not to cause interference in the predicted region.